Obedience by Faith HOW SIN BECOMES HATEFUL
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Ps. 40:8.
The program that most of us have operated on at some time, at least, in our Christian lives is this: we think we will always love sin, but we will grit our teeth and stay away from it because we love God. The usual concept in Christian circles is that in living the Christian life we refrain from evil and do what is right because we love God, even though we would like to do wrong. "I love to dance. I always did. I probably always will. But I won't do it, because I love Jesus." "I love pork. Pork was always one of my favorites. I'd love to have some right now. But I've given it up--that's my cross for Jesus, and I'll bear it for Him." I do not believe that this is genuine obedience.
"All true obedience comes from he heart. It was heart work with Christ. If we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, sin will become hateful to us."--The Desire of Ages, p. 668.
Don't work on obedience--put your attention toward knowing God, and obedience will come. Isn't that clear? Yet how many of us have wasted countless time and energy working on obedience, instead of seeking to know God.
We understand the working of cause and effect in many other areas of our lives. Even children know that if they want to grow, the thing to do is eat--not try hard to grow. Good doctors know that it is essential to discover the cause of an illness, not merely to treat the symptom. It is any different in our spiritual lives? God knows that if He can gain possession of our hearts, our behavior will be changed naturally and spontaneously. He knows that if He can somehow let us see sin as He sees it, and understand His love sufficiently so that we will trust Him with our happiness, we will come to hate sin as He does. And if we hate sin, if we find sin repulsive, as Jesus did, will not obedience naturally follow?
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Ps. 40:8.
The program that most of us have operated on at some time, at least, in our Christian lives is this: we think we will always love sin, but we will grit our teeth and stay away from it because we love God. The usual concept in Christian circles is that in living the Christian life we refrain from evil and do what is right because we love God, even though we would like to do wrong. "I love to dance. I always did. I probably always will. But I won't do it, because I love Jesus." "I love pork. Pork was always one of my favorites. I'd love to have some right now. But I've given it up--that's my cross for Jesus, and I'll bear it for Him." I do not believe that this is genuine obedience.
"All true obedience comes from he heart. It was heart work with Christ. If we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, sin will become hateful to us."--The Desire of Ages, p. 668.
Don't work on obedience--put your attention toward knowing God, and obedience will come. Isn't that clear? Yet how many of us have wasted countless time and energy working on obedience, instead of seeking to know God.
We understand the working of cause and effect in many other areas of our lives. Even children know that if they want to grow, the thing to do is eat--not try hard to grow. Good doctors know that it is essential to discover the cause of an illness, not merely to treat the symptom. It is any different in our spiritual lives? God knows that if He can gain possession of our hearts, our behavior will be changed naturally and spontaneously. He knows that if He can somehow let us see sin as He sees it, and understand His love sufficiently so that we will trust Him with our happiness, we will come to hate sin as He does. And if we hate sin, if we find sin repulsive, as Jesus did, will not obedience naturally follow?
RSS Feed
